GOP Utah Senator’s Fate Uncertain, Dems Aim for Referendum on Michele Bachmann and More in Capital Eye Opener: May 7

Your daily dose of news and tidbits from the world of money in politics:DEMS AIM FOR REFERENDUM ON BACHMANN: Money-in-politics reporter Michael Beckel passes along this news:

While Republicans try to make the 2010 mid-term elections about President Barack Obama, campaigns are underway in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District to make the election a referendum on Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann.

The outspoken, conservative congresswoman was first elected in 2006 by 8 percentage points, won reelection in 2008 with a 3-percent margin of victory and has emerged as a favorite among the conservative Tea Party movement.

State senator Tarryl Clark has emerged as the Democratic Party’s favored candidate to challenge Bachmann in November, and while Clark still faces a primary challenge from former University of Minnesota Regent Maureen Reed, Clark has wasted no time in highlighting the “Bachmann Agenda.”

On the campaign trail, Clark has said, “It’s time to deliver more than a sound bite. Rep. Bachmann’s biggest accomplishments are creating controversy instead of creating good jobs, and working the talk show circuit instead of helping working families.” Clark also recently launched a new website called MicheleBachmannSaidWhat.com. In her quest to unseat Bachmann, Clark has raised more than $1.1 million, with a whopping 49 percent of that sum coming from individuals who give less than $200, the Federal Election Commission threshold for itemized disclosure.

And she’s not the only one trying to make the November election all about Bachmann.

According to a Center for Responsive Politics review of recent filings with the Federal Election Commission, two activists in the 6th Congressional District recently formed an independent political action committee called Blitz the 6th and launched a website called BlitzBachmann.com, which has a goal of “examples of Bachmann’s conduct that have been harmful to her constituents.”

For her part, Bachmann has been a fund-raising powerhouse, raising more than $2.3 million through March. Of this sum, roughly 90 percent has come from individual donors — and 43 percent of her entire war chest has come from individuals who give less than $200 — ranking her among the top recipients of small-donor support in the U.S. House, as OpenSecrets Bloghas previously reported.

DEM TROUBLE IN HAWAII?: Democrats and are wringing their hands over the upcoming special election in Hawaii’s First Congressional District scheduled for May 22, in which more than a dozen Democratic, Republican and independent candidates are facing off and whoever wins a plurality of the vote will ascend to office without any sort of run-off mechanism. A tight three-way race between two high-profile Democrats and one high-profile Republican is causing the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which has spent nearly a quarter-million dollars blasting Republican Charles Djou, to “reconsider” its spending priorities and stop spending on the race, reports Politico. Recent polls have shown Djou, a Honolulu city council member, with an advantage over both top Democrats — former Rep. Ed Case and State Senate President Colleen Hanabusa. The prospect of the two Dems splitting the vote and throwing the election to Djou raises the prospect that the party might lose the seat once held by Rep. Neil Abercrombie, who resigned to run for governor of the island state. The state Democratic Party has been unable to convince either Democratic candidate to drop out of the race.

ANTI-INCUMBENT FERVOR HITS PROMINENT REPUBLICAN: Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah) — who last won re-election in 2004 with nearly 70 percent of the vote — is facing a tough primary challenge from conservative candidates running to his right, the most recent expression of anti-incumbent sentiment, reports Politico. Until recently, Bennett’s re-election to a fourth term had been seen as fairly assured, but now he faces the prospect of not even appearing on the primary ballot if he does not receive a sufficient number of votes at the state Republican Party convention tomorrow. Bennett has raised nearly $4 million this election cycle and spent almost $3 million of it convincing Utah Republicans to give him another term in Washington. His multitude of opponents has raised barely a fraction of that. Businessman Tim Bridgewater has raised the most, around $375,000, and only spent $160,000. Other top fund-raisers facing Bennett include Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who has raised $250,000, and insurgent candidate Mike Lee, an attorney, who has raised $150,000. OpenSecrets Blog profiled Bennett, who supported the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) enacted by President George W. Bush in October 2008 and called his vote for the bailout one of the toughest decisions of his career, as part of our “Crossing Wall Street” series last year.

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